We on the orkut team love talking to our friends online, but there are also plenty of times when we'd really like to hang out with them in person. To make it easier for you to get together with old friends and meet new ones, we've added an events tool to orkut.

To create an event, just click the "events" button on the left side of your home page or profile. After you choose a creative title for your party/meeting/hot-dog eating contest and pick a good time for it to start, you can invite any of your orkut friends. To help ensure that all of your friends know how to find you, the orkut events tool will automatically create a Google Map of whatever location you choose. All you have to do is click "add more details" and type your event's location into the box labeled "address." If you'd like to make your plans a bit more exclusive, there are three privacy settings that you can choose from to restrict who can participate in and even view the event.Check out the invitation I made for the going-away party I'm throwing on November 29th:With the new orkut events tool you can easily:

personalize your event with a creative title, description, and picture

map your event's location just by typing in the address

control whether your event will be a public gathering or a private party